Farmers’ climate change perception, impacts and adaptation strategies in response to drought in the Northwest area of Bangladesh

This study seeks to explore the farmers’ climate change perceptions, impacts, and underlying factors that influenced the choice of adaptation strategies in the drought-prone northwest region of Bangladesh. Primary data was collected from 375 sample households from four drought-prone districts (i.e., Rajshahi, Chapainawabganj, Naogaon, and Dinajpur). The factors influencing the farmers’ adaptation practices were determined using a multinomial logistic model (MNL). During survey, farmers’ perceptions about climate change were identical to the meteorological trends of the last 60 years (1960–2022) except for Dinajpur station. In the study period drought were mainly affects increased cost of production, declining ground water levels, crop failures and scarcity of soil water, lower income, food scarcity etc. The MNL results showed that age, education, income, family size, farming experience, access to climate, farmer-to-farmer extension, social mobility, and loan subsidies directly influenced adaptation decisions. The most significant adaptation strategies adopted by the farmers were irrigation facilities, agronomic management, drought-tolerant rice varieties, adopting new technologies, and alternative enterprises of land use change. To protect farmers from natural disasters, especially drought, sustainable water management plan, credit support from government, less water consuming crops, new crop varieties and re-excavation of traditional ponds must be implemented in the study area.

Practical Implications

The goal of this research is to provide a comprehensive analysis of adaptation to climate change, especially drought, and its implications in the Northwest region of Bangladesh. The country experiences various types of natural disasters, which means that the government and citizens have a long history of developing a significant track record of preparedness, adaptation, and recovery in response to such occurrences. It is well known that the prospect and occurrence of such catastrophes is a significant impediment to progress and the improvement of human welfare.

The frequency and the severity of extreme weather events due to climate change in South East Asia including Bangladesh is anticipated to intensify in the forthcoming years. In recent years, decreasing rainfall and increasing temperature have serious impact on agricultural sector specially the northwest area of Bangladesh, with rural farmers heavily affected since they depend largely on rainfall for their livelihood. According to national adaptation plan of Bangladesh (NAP), the whole area of the country is susceptible to the detrimental effects of climate change. However, the northwest region is particularly vulnerable to drought because of geoclimatic and man-made factors. Drought in this area are not only experienced through high rainfall variability accompanied with high temperature, but also shortage of groundwater, lack of canal and river dragging, high population density, deforestation, etc. accelerate drought severity in this region (Habiba et al., 2012). Water shortage is becoming a serious issue in an area that is prone to drought because limited rainfall and excessive extraction of groundwater for irrigation can have an adverse effect on the environment and climate change.

The role of adaptation in responding to drought in our country is not well-organized but it is a vital issue for agriculture and economic growth. Very few studies focus on the views and farmers’ perceptions about climate change and their adaptation strategies on specific agricultural productions. The study mainly examines major climate variables and their trends, farmers perception on climate change and drought, adaptation strategies and the factors affecting choice of those strategies. The required data are collected from 375 farm households under 4 districts (Rajshahi, Noagaon, Dinajpur and Chapainawabganj) in the northwest drought prone area Bangladesh.

Our results show that About 95.6 % farmers claimed that the climate has changed dramatically over the last 30 years. The change observed in rainfall and temperature disturbances like dry season longer, low rainfall, increasing of temperature, increasing number of warm days, decreasing number of rainy days, manmade reason etc. For this study, we use 5-point Likert scale which clearly depicts the farmers perception towards drought. During study period the rainfall output claim that Rajshahi station shows decreasing trend whereas Dinajpur station observes increasing trend but for temperature it is opposite in nature (vice versa).

Drought mainly effects various types of agricultural related issues and productions such as increased cost of production, declining groundwater levels, crop failures, scarcity of soil water, lower income, food scarcity, health impacts, malnutrition, losses of livestock, water quality deterioration and unemployment. The farmers mainly offer to rank these effects by weighted average index for finding the main effects of drought.

In the study area, we observed that farmers used various types of indigenous and traditional method for their farming such as drought tolerant rice varieties, agronomic management, re-excavation of traditional ponds, increase amount of surface water, rainwater harvesting, irrigation facility, crop intensification, alternative enter prize of land use change, crop rotation and changing planting date, extra income generating activities, adopting new technologies etc. The MNL results identifies age, education, income, family size, farming experience, access to climate, farmer-to-farmer extension, social mobility, and loan subsidies directly influence most significant adaptation strategies implemented by the farmers.

The present research endeavours to prioritise the perspectives of the vulnerable population in the evaluation of climate change’s effects and adaptation measures by examining the perceptions and awareness of farmers regarding drought, its consequences, and potential coping mechanisms. A better comprehension of farmers’ perceptions concerning climate change and variability, existing adaptation measures, and the factors influencing them will be important to implementing better policies for the future adaptation of the agricultural industry (Nhemachena and Hassan 2007). For ensuring regional food security, this study can open up discussions on the impacts and adaptation strategies associated with various types of stakeholders, such as smallholder and subsistence farmers, and contribute towards mitigating the detrimental effects of drought on agricultural production.